“No, it’s part of playoff hockey. We’re trying to do the same thing with some of their people. I thought the second game was more physical than the first, but you need to play through it, especially with the new rules, with defensemen, they’re targets. I mean, you can’t hold up, and teams play that way. They try to put it into areas and bang. So, do we want our guys hit? No. I think it’s the responsibility of the players, also, if they can get away from it, get away from it. But you still have to make a play. That’s part of winning in playoff hockey, is winning to make a play. It’s part of winning, period, I guess, not just playoffs.”

On importance of the first goal for an offense that’s struggling:

“You know, I’m not going to get into magnifying, back up against the wall, all that stuff there. We’re going to play. We know what we have to do, and we’re going to try to play.”

On the maturation of the young guys from Game 1 to Game 2:

“I think those two (McDonagh and Sauer) have, right from the get-go, have just, it’s really encouraging. I looked at McDonagh and I think he has to go through a little process where it really shouldn’t have been a penalty, but that’s going to happen. You can’t take a risk. If you’re not playing between the whistles, you’re taking a risk. So I think he’ll learn there. But the way he’s handled himself, I think he has some fight to him. You can just see his attitude. I think he has the right attitude. Michael Sauer the same thing. They have been two of our best as far as handling their first situation. I thought Step played better. Artie Anisimov, I think there is some nerves. But as each game goes by they are getting better. Now it’s a new animal coming into MSG here. Home building. I’m anxious to see how they react.

“This is all part of the process in building a team, so I’m glad we’re here and I think we will be better as we keep on going through the series.”

“I’ll go to Artie because he sticks out. I thought he really struggled at times and then the second half of Game 2 he started being more physical and he just seemed more involved. He’s important for us. He’s a young man whose been given quite a bit of responsibiity as a center-iceman on this team and I saw him start growing a little bit and understanding that your game comes in when you start getting around the puck and hitting people. And it’s very important for Step, too. Step has gone through, not a lot of downs — a couple of downs early in the season — but once he started getting involved with the body, his game started following behind it. It always is. And I think they’re improving. I’m looking forward to today. Not only those guys, but I think our team is really ready to jump in here and try to grab some momentum.”

On how to get to the net:

“That’s a willingness. It doesn’t matter which building. You could be out on the pond. It’s a matter of trying to get there. It’s a matter of trying to funnel shots there to allow people to get there. The series is 2-0, but it’s been, at least from my standpoint, either way it could change; it changes. I think at times we’ve defended pretty well. Our biggest key is to get something good to happen for us offensively. I look at their second goal the other night, which was a huge goal. We’re defending their power play the right way. It deflects off a skate, off Gilroy’s skate, right onto Arnott’s stick. And he buries it. That’s a huge goal. And I’m hoping that something like that happens for us, because we’re not far off. I’ll tell you right now, we’re not far off. They can’t win the series today, we can’t win the series today, but we can grab some momentum. I think that’s the most important thing when you’re in a series, to try and get some momentum on your side.”

On home ice providing a matchup advantage, or energy:

“You know, the matchups, for me, they’re a little overplayed. I think they’re going to get their matchups. If they want to get their two young defensemen against Gaborik today, they’ll get them if they really work hard at it. Just the same thing we did with Staal and Girardi. I know we like to talk a lot about those matchups, but as far as we’re concerned, evergy is a real important thing. But you have to be careful. You come into your home building … you need to have some discipline too. You need to control it also. I don’t need to speak with the team about playing with energy today. I thought, after Game 1, I don’t think we had enough energy. I don’t think we had enough jam. Game 2 we were better. I don’t have to talk about that today. It’s a matter of keeping it under control, because you can’t put yourself in a bad spot and allow a power-play goal to hurt you.”

Rick Carpiniello, 26, was born and raised in Harrison and began working in The Journal News' sports department (back when it was The Reporter Dispatch and eight other newspapers) in October of 1977 after a year of covering high school sports as a stringer. In 1978 he began covering the New York Rangers and the National Hockey League. Carpiniello has been writing columns on everything from local sports to the big leagues since 2002.